Water Resources Test - 2

An area or region may have ample water resources but is still facing water scarcity. Water scarcity may be an outcome of the large and growing population.

Given the abundance and renewability of water, it is difficult to imagine that we may suffer from water scarcity.

Freshwater can be obtained directly from precipitation, surface run off and groundwater.

70 per cent of the freshwater occurs as ice sheets and glaciers in Antarctica, Greenland and the mountainous regions of the world.

This freshwater is mainly obtained from surface run off and ground water that is continually being renewed and recharged through the hydrological cycle. This water cycle as it is otherwise called, includes evaporation, condensation and precipitation.

We instantaneously visualise the deserts of Rajasthan and women balancing many ‘matkas’ (earthen pots) used for collecting and storing water and travelling long distances to get water.

India receives nearly 4 per cent of the global precipitation and ranks 133 in the world in terms of water availability per person per annum.

The moment we speak of water shortages, we immediately associate it with regions having low rainfall or those that are drought prone.

Water scarcity in most cases is caused by over- exploitation, excessive use and unequal access to water among different social groups.

You may have seen in many television advertisements that most farmers have their own wells and tube-wells in their farms for irrigation to increase their produce.